Saddi Dilli today witnessed a mega mock safety drill in which over 40,000 people took part. The drill primarily focuses to improve its preparedness for any disaster which might occur due to an earthquake since the city of 16 million is quite tremor-prone. Police personnel patrolled with sniffer dogs around metro stations, shopping malls and local markets.
This was indeed one of the biggest coördinated drills which have happened here till date. The disaster management agencies check the alertness and preparedness of various other agencies in the event of an earthquake of 7.2 magnitude rocking the capital. All the major governments as well as private hospitals participated in the mock drill which was carried out as part of the Delhi Emergency Management Exercise (DEMEX) by the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA).
The basic purpose of the drill, which started at around 11:45 AM, was to assess and improve emergency medical response system. 300 observers from Army and National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) oversaw the exercise. Officials from all the important Emergency Support Functionary departments like police, MCD, DMRC, Health department, Delhi Jal Board and Food and Civil Supplies have been coordinating with senior officials of all the nine districts to make the drill a success.
The NDMA had appointed six teams of observers which comprised of doctors from National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIH&FW), AIIMS and Railways. There were experts from Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh and Oregon under whose supervision the simulation exercises were conducted. The CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) also participated at some locations from the North and West Delhi where simulated incidents of bomb blasts were created.
The proxy “casualties” were taken to various hospitals and admitted for treatment. The prominent hospitals which participated in the exercise include LNJP hospital, Gangaram Hospital, RML hospital, DDU hospital, Guru Gobind Singh hospital, Aruna Asaf Ali hospital, Hindu Rao hospital, Rao Tula Ram hospital, GTB hospital, Lady Harding hospital, Apollo hospital, Hedgewar hospital.
People commuting both on their own and also the ones using public transport faced hardship in various areas due to the mock drill as flow of traffic in various areas was affected. An similar mega mock drill was conducted earlier this year, in collaboration with the NDMA and DDMA on the 15th of Feb. These drills truly demonstrate if not the preparedness, at least the willingness of the government to be prepared for any untoward incidents that might occur. And I would call it another step towards establishing saddi Dilli prominently as an international city on the world map.
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